GWENT’S Paralympians – athletes Hollie Arnold and Kyron Duke, archer Dave Phillips and cyclist James Ball – are ready to go for gold in Tokyo.

The Games, delayed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, begin today with the opening ceremony, before competition gets under way tomorrow.

Arnold, Duke, Phillips and Ball are four of 21 ParalympicsGB team members from Wales or who have Welsh connections.

Some 226 athletes make up the British contingent in Japan, for a Games which run from today until September 5.

Arnold is the most experienced of the quartet when it comes to the Paralympic Games, having already competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, despite still being just 27.

Born without a right forearm, the former Ystrad Mynach resident, who hails from Grimsby, competed in her first Games at only 14 years old.

Since then, she has gone on to dominate the women’s F46 javelin, winning four consecutive world titles, as well as Commonwealth Games gold for Wales in 2018.

She goes into her event on Friday as the defending champion after claiming gold in Rio with a new world record.

Visually impaired cyclist Ball, from Ponthir, is the first of the Gwent four in action.

He takes to the velodrome tomorrow for the men’s B individual pursuit alongside pilot Lewis Stewart.

The pair won gold and silver at the 2020 world championships, Ball’s eighth and ninth medals on the global stage.

Riding with Pete Mitchell, Ball, 30, also picked up two silvers for Wales at the last Commonwealth Games.

After the individual pursuit, Ball is back in the saddle on Saturday when he and Stewart go in the kilo time trial.

Tokyo is a third Paralympics for Cwmbran shot putter Duke, and he will be hoping for a first medal in the Far East.

Having finished fifth and eighth in the shot and javelin in 2012, the 28-year-old, who was born with achondroplasia, was fifth and sixth in the same events in Rio.

He has three European silvers, two world silvers and three world bronzes to his name, so fingers crossed the former powerlifter can take the top prize in the men’s F41 shot put next Monday.

At 55, Cwmbran’s Phillips is one of the oldest members of the British team.

In Rio, he was ninth in the men’s individual recurve (open category) and reached the quarter-finals of the mixed team recurve competition.

Despite earning a quota place for Britain back in 2019, Phillips, who has multiple sclerosis, was only confirmed on the team in June because he had to go through the reclassification process. He is set to compete on Friday (individual) and Saturday (mixed team).